Carl Sagan changed my life

Flipping through a worn copy of Cosmos by Carl Sagan, I relish the musty smell of pages that changed my life.  This beautifully illustrated book has withstood the test of time as a history of science and its significance.  But I never saw the original PBS series so watching the sequel with Neil DeGrasse Tyson thrills me!  The illustrations and photos, many actual NASA shots, are phenomenal.  True to the spirit of Dr. Sagan, it is science and history at their best.

Carl Sagan
from the dust jacket of Cosmos

While some may say the version of history advanced by Cosmos is not completely accurate, there's no attempt to fudge the facts for the sake of political expediency. An interesting debate is unfolding between Corey S. Powell,  Discover magazine's Editor at Large, and Steven Sotor, Cosmos's co-writer and resident research associate at the American Museum of Natural History.  Powell asks if the 16th century astronomer Thomas Digges should be depicted as the protagonist of the first episode rather than the visionary Giordano Bruno.   

The question is which man better represents the scientific community.  Powell advances Digges, the diligent astronomer and diplomatic observer. Sotor makes the case for Bruno, who contributed much to our understanding of stars but who also alienated his religious community in the process.  Powell is correct to say that this is an important issue but I disagree that the first episode fails to advance the correct agenda by alienating religious fundamentalists through the use of Bruno. 

As I see it, there are two problems with the critique.  The first is that it fails to appreciate that science is an enterprise of realists and visionaries.  The two are needed but rarely are these attributes woven together in a single person, other than perhaps in Charles Darwin or Albert Einstein. Yes, science is a community affair but that shouldn't mean that all must play similar roles.  The power and beauty of science is that the testing of results confirms or denies not just an individual's opinion but the scientific community's opinion as to the best fit with reality.  And as Michael Polanyi and Thomas Kuhn's concept of paradigm shift explains, this best fit can change radically.  

Science is our window to the world, a window that is enlarged through subsequent generations. Sometimes our view through this window is fairly accurate.  Other times, not quite.  For example, those who appreciate Einstein's contribution to scientific advancement understand that his work both refuted and extended aspects of Newtonian physics.  

The second mistake of the critique is in misunderstanding the nature of Sagan's attempt at compromise.  Carl Sagan was not prepared to water down science, rather he was trying to preserve it with a rapprochement between religion and science.  But this enterprise seems to have failed spectacularly, not just in science but in politics and society generally.  

A compromise with fundamentalist conservative forces is not possible.  George Lakoff, a well-known American cognitive linguist, has explained its futility.  A recent interview in The Guardian sums up Lakoff's thinking nicely -- persuasive arguments are made on the basis of moral frames rather than appeals to rationality.  His argument is a damning indictment of the progressive approach. Lakoff argues the tactics of rational discussion and compromise are flawed for failing to take into account how human beings actually think.  He also makes the case that conservative forces better understand the workings of the human mind when it considers topics such as science, religion and politics.

Fundamentalists have pointed to Cosmos and correctly understood that it has the power to undermine their religious beliefs.  Bold statements of fact when it comes to the age of the earth or evolutionary processes do indeed strike at their core.  For if the universe is infinite in space, who is to say that it is not also infinite in time?  This is the crux of the matter.  An infinite space/time universe, or as DeGrasse Tyson says a possible multiverse, has no need for a creator.

A dumpster at the Fisheries and Oceans Canada library
Mont-Joli, Quebec

In Canada, Conservative politicians have begun dismantling scientific and democratic institutions.  One of the first to go was the long-form census in 2010.  Information from the census allowed politicians at all levels, even school trustees, the opportunity to make decisions in an objective rather than ideological fashion.  

Then in the summer of 2013, Fisheries and Oceans Canada libraries were closed.  With their closures, unique research publications, some over a century old, were no longer available or were destroyed.  This is baseline data, likely much of it gone forever.  Since then, Environment Canada, Transport Canada, Public Works, and the main Health Canada libraries have been closed.  It makes me weep.  The federal government is destroying our scientific equivalent of the ancient Library of Alexandria with nary a word of opposition from Canadians!

Now the government is trying to rush C-23, the Fair Elections Act, through Parliament. A group of academics in an open letter supported by a Globe and Mail editorial said the Act will:

"undermine the integrity of the Canadian electoral process, diminish the effectiveness of Elections Canada, reduce voting rights, expand the role of money in politics and foster partisan bias in election administration."

Canada is facing an unparalleled assault on democratic, scientific and environmental knowledge and institutions.  Like many progressive people throughout the world, Canadians are mostly accepting this destruction.

The second episode of Cosmos talks about the five mass extinctions that preceded the modern age:  the Ordovician, Devonian, Permian, Triassic, and Cretaceous periods. The unasked question is: Are we currently living in the middle of another mass extinction? There are many indicators to think so.

With over 99% of all species now extinct, the only real question is when human beings will join the crowd.  Canadians in particular have a role to play both in terms of modelling good behaviour and in lessening the conditions that hasten humanity's demise.  We are among the best educated populations on earth and we have control over vast reserves of oil, the ultimate cause for the imminent threat of climate change.  

Does it aid our chances of survival to continue to pursue an accord with fundamentalists? In the Open Society and its Enemies, Karl Popper, the great 20th century philosopher of science, responds:

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance.  If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them."

The answer is no, we can no longer afford to pursue a compromise.  George Lakoff's understanding of cognition and frames is correct and there is no possibility of reaching Powell's "peace between the two sides."  We've run out of time. What is needed instead is to inspire progressive humanity to action and this is the strength of the Cosmos series.

Will further attempts to reach this rapprochement cause an undermining of the grand vision of science?  And if so, will this negatively affect the thinking and actions of progressive people in defence of science and democracy?  Yes on both counts. 

Science is more than simple experimentation and observation.  At it's best, it's inspirational and suggests steps forward.  It's democratic and egalitarian in its leanings. All men and women can and have aspired to be scientists.  While America has yet to see a woman elected president, there have been hundreds of American women scientists including Nobel Prize winners Maria Mayer, Barbara McClintock, Gertrude Elion as well as the famous marine biologist who created and revolutionized our understanding of the environment, Rachel Carson.  Defenders of science need a reminder of what we stand to lose and an example like Bruno to inspire them.  Without a strong vision, we are left floundering.  Cosmos helps restore this vision.  

To return to Powell's original question, would Carl Sagan approve of Giordano Bruno as a hero in Cosmos?  When Dr. Sagan spoke at a special meeting of Parliament in June 1984, he did not mince words when it came to the imminent possibility of mass extinction through the use of nuclear weapons, the concept of Nuclear Winter.  As our understanding of the mind is advancing, I have no doubt that Sagan would say go with the science. In this sense, Steven Sotor is correct in advancing Bruno.  Science is not just an endeavour of careful observers; it is importantly a vocation of courageous visionaries.

We are standing at the sixth portal of DeGrasse Tyson's grand "Hall of Extinction".  Will human beings go through that climate change gateway or remain on this side?  It is time to grow up and take responsibility for our destructive influences on the ecosystem of the earth.  If we don't, not only will we be the first species to be fully aware of our probable demise but also the first to squander an opportunity to prevent it.


P.S.  The final instalment of the Powell-Sotor debate is in.  It's an interesting debate -- thank you.  This final comment by Powell is spot on:

"In truth, it took both Bruno and Digges (and their many successors) to build – slowly, incrementally, with many stumbles along the way – toward our modern understanding of the universe." 

The views expressed in this post are personal opinions only.

The meaning of life is happiness.

I am in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains and feeling the effects of oxygen deprivation.  At an elevation of close to 2,100 meters, the walk up this steep hill in McLeod Ganj has been difficult but oh-so-worth it for in the distance stretch the snow-capped mountains.  It is beautiful and in contrast to Delhi, the air is crisp and clean.

View from McLeod Ganj

There are many Tibetans who have fled to McLeod Ganj in recent years. They make the long trek over the mountains in the winter, when roads are impassible, and they lose toes or fingers to frostbite. This town is filled with Tibetans who despite improbable odds, seem to be universally happy. I would gladly while away an afternoon in a Tibetan shop just to listen to the sound of their laughter.

This day has other plans.  Our little group makes the trek up to the monastery of the Dalai Lama and we are greeted by saffron-robed monks with shaved heads, men and women alike.  I start speaking to a well-educated monk from France and she tries to explain their lives to me.  I am again struck by the natural, not forced, good humour that surrounds me.

After a brief tour, we have a tasty vegetarian lunch and towards the end, there is a big commotion.  I mean these are quiet, happy monks.  What is happening?

I duck out of the dining room to see a courtyard of monks together in groups of three. They are all arguing in loud voices.  What gives?  Punctuating the many gestures and the wagging of fingers is a periodic clap as the right hand is lowered toward the left to produce a loud sound -- one hand clapping!  This seems to be a signal for the monks to exchange places in their triads.

I find my French monk and she explains that they believe in maintaining wellness of mind and body.  Part of their wellness routine is to exercise the gifts of the mind by debating. They were likely discussing religious points but make no mistake, these were heated arguments.  And the clap?  Well, that's the point when the referee in the triad thinks a good point has been made and at this, they change places.

Well this was the best!  I grew up near an order of contemplative monks, the Trappists of Oka, Quebec.  They took vows of silence.  Not these smiling, laughing monks!  Think Dalai Lama multiplied by three hundred.  I thought about signing up on the spot ... perhaps in my old age.

That evening, we ate at a restaurant run by the monks.  We were the last customers and the monks who ran the restaurant also sat down to eat.  I hurriedly finished while asking myself how I could show my appreciation to people who didn't speak English. The answer came to me but I paused as I wasn't sure that my gesture wouldn't be seen as inappropriate.

As I went toward the cash, I turned to the table of monks.  Making eye-contact with a female monk, I smiled and made my point, "The meal was great but the tea was a little weak!"  I followed this with a loud one-hand clap.

For a moment, they looked at me clearly startled but I continued to smile.  Then the monks roared!  The female monk covered her mouth and was doubled-over laughing. One of the monks ran to find someone who could speak English and we spent the rest of the evening laughing and talking together.  Here I was literally halfway around the world but I had found genuine human contact through the universal language of laughter.  What an amazing gift!

This was ten years ago but I came full circle this week.  In the intervening years, I heard the Dalai Lama speak at an event here in Ottawa.  The acoustics weren't great but it didn't seem to matter -- the man is always laughing!  Attached is a great story written by Douglas Preston about the Dalai Lama laughing as he's bowled over by a group of skiers, The Dalai Lama's Ski Trip.

The Dalai Lama's Ski Trip

Here's an excerpt:
"She (the waitress serving the Dalai Lama) spoke with complete seriousness.  "What is the meaning of life?

The Dalai Lama answered immediately.  "The meaning of life is happiness."  He raised his finger, leaning forward, focusing on her as if she were the only person in the world. "Hard question is not. 'What is the meaning of life?'  That is easy question to answer!  No, hard question is what make happiness.  Money?  Big house?  Accomplishment?  Friends?  Or ..."  He paused.  "Compassion and good heart?  This question all human beings must try to answer: What make true happiness?"  He gave this last question a peculiar emphasis and then fell silent, gazing at her with a smile."

There's always something in our genetic makeup and in our upbringing that when combined, can bring on disease.  Allow me to explain.  Some geneticists estimate that we each carry about 20 lethal genes as well as other genes that can make us ill.  When expressed in certain conditions, these cause illness.  There are some families with higher rates of diabetes or alcoholism.1   Others may have higher rates of certain types of cancer.  This is the reason that Angelina Jolie recently had preventative surgery.  Her DNA carries genes that make her particularly vulnerable to the development of breast cancer.  Similarly, schizophrenia, autism and depression tend to run in families.

There is often a nurturing or environmental factor that can either prevent or help bring on disease.  A high consumption of alcohol, high caloric intake, stress or other habits that can run in families cause the genetic disease to be expressed.  Perhaps this is another meaning of the well-known expression, "The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children."

When I was younger, I had depression.  It took me a long time to overcome but this week, a friend sent me a TED Talk that reinforced what I had discovered by trial and error, The Happy Secret of Better Work with Dr. Shawn Achor.  What I like about Dr. Achor's approach is that he breaks down happiness into small steps, small habits, that we can all learn: send one appreciative email a day, smile, give thanks, exercise and have fun.

Perhaps I am starting to get the hang of having fun!  Humour is a habit and it needs to be cultivated.  I turned the anger I felt from depression sideways into bad puns and wisecracks.  Some uncultured people don't like my puns but even they seem to like being around me more.  More importantly, I like being around myself.  By spontaneously having fun, the divide between work and play dissolves.  Dr. Achor says happiness makes us more creative and smarter.  I believe him.  I continue to crack jokes to keep from becoming depressed but just pity my poor sons and colleagues who have to put up with these jokes! 

From the foothills of the Himalayas ten years ago to a TED Talk this past week, I finally get fun and happiness.  And if Dr. Shawn Achor is right, this is something we can teach our children that will make them not only more creative and smarter but truly happy.

When my sons were younger, we would make wishes in jest by breaking chicken wishbones, blowing out birthday candles, or throwing coins in a fountain.  The boys would always tease me, "Mom, we know what your wish is.  You want us to be happy" They were right.  I always looked for ways to break the chain of depression.  The sins of the parent shouldn't be laid on the child.

The Dalai Lama is right -- the meaning of life is happiness, at least it is for me.  And Dr. Achor is also right in that the feeling of happiness allows us to find greater meaning in life. It's an upward spiral as one reinforces the other.  Now where's that saffron robe?


The views expressed in this post are personal opinions only.

You never know which kids are poor

"Principals know which kids are poor."  This is often said in meetings and it makes me want to scream.  It's rarely said by principals though.  Children go to great lengths to hide the shame of poverty and principals know they have no way of knowing which students are truly poor.

Poverty is a constant gnawing in the pit of the stomach and an inability to think about anything other than food.  It is a lack of payment for field trips and the humiliation of being asked once again to bring in the money.  It is the hand-me-downs that don't quite fit and the mocking that follows.  It is being fat and being teased as children who often live on little more than sugar and fat are overweight.  It is loneliness as inviting friends to your home is unthinkable.  It is often the double jeopardy of mental illness and addiction in a family member.  And it has less to do with the lack of resources and more to do with a lack of self-worth.

Poverty is the constant punishment for the ridiculous crime of being born in the wrong place at the wrong time.  In 1989, the federal government vowed to end child poverty by 2000.  Instead even more children are poor1 and more than one in seven Canadian children today lives in poverty.2  

I'm not an educator but I've learnt to read my audience.  When the educators in the room sit up and take notice, I think about it.  Often enough, ideas that are common to social workers or community activists are foreign to educators.  And in fairness, the opposite holds true too.  

There's more implied by "Principals know which kids are poor".   Educators tend to think of poverty as an illness to be cured a child at a time, the medical model of disease.  Like physicians with treatments, educators often believe they can address child poverty if principals have sandwiches to hand out, funds for school supplies, or money for field trips.  The problem is this isn't true.

Is poverty a disease of individuals with a simple cause-and-effect much like appendicitis or diabetes?  No, it is far more complicated and the causes are many.  While poverty's influence impacts individuals, it is families and communities that are actually impoverished and this is where we have to direct our attention.

There are successful models for addressing poverty but they are based on a public health paradigm.  What do I mean by this?  More complicated diseases are often not amenable to individual treatment because either the disease spreads too rapidly, it is not treatable in the conventional sense, or it is too expensive to treat individually. We have community water purification systems because many diseases are water-borne and it is more effective and less expensive to prevent diseases such as E. coli, typhoid or cholera than it is to treat them.  Think Walkerton.  The same is true for smallpox and polio, two diseases that were widespread, highly virulent and even deadly prior to the introduction of mass immunization programs.

This approach can also be used to address poverty.  One such initiative is the Banff-Ledbury neighbourhood's No Community Left Behind project.  This project directly involved members of the community to address their own needs.  Another similar initiative that is particularly dear to my heart is the Pathways to Education project.

Pathways to Education

Unlike what the Fraser Institute might have us believe, studies show that child poverty and failure in school are closely linked.  Pathways to Education is an initiative that addresses the economic and educational needs of poorer children.  And if I tell you that studies also show that better educated populations are healthier, then it shouldn't come as a surprise to hear that Pathways projects are often initiated by community health centres.  Pathways provides student tutoring, mentoring, bus transportation to school or lunch vouchers, and post-secondary scholarships.  High school graduation rates have more than doubled and the rate of post-secondary attendance in colleges or universities has tripled among Pathways participants.3

The Pathways model identifies needier communities and then links these communities to the school.  Families of participating students who live in geographically distinct communities sign contracts and are directly involved in the project.  This helps ensure community and family support for the students and the program.

Let me emphasize this point.  Pathways to Education is not a charity in the conventional sense.  It does not simply provide student resources such as tutoring services or bus tickets.  Rather Pathways is about developing relationships within and between members of the community, families and the school.  In fact, most Pathways services are provided by community volunteers.

If you want to do something right now to support Pathways to Education, simply click on this link and vote everyday until March 21.  If Pathways receives the most votes, it will win a $50,000 grant.

Teachers mean well when it comes to helping young people but few have any personal experience with poverty.  Still particularly among educators, there's no excuse for ignorance.


The views expressed in this post are personal opinions only.

Violence not nudity affects children

Every year, there are colourful parades in Ottawa.  Two of the most interesting include provocative posters and men apparently dressed in women’s clothing: the National March for Life and the Capital Pride Parade.

I have attended a National March for Life rally as a spectator.  There were religious people participating and hundreds of children, some from local schools whom I recognized by their school uniforms.   This rally took place during a school day and students would have taken time off school to attend the rally.

A good number of the participants, including some of the children, were carrying gruesome posters of the dismemberment of women and what appeared to be full-term infants.  Just to make sure the message wasn’t lost, the words “Baby Killers” were scrawled across many of the posters.

It’s interesting to note how readily society accepts violent images even when directed toward children.  The results from a national survey in the United States indicate that 60% of children are exposed to direct or indirect acts of violence including bullying and domestic violence.  The results of an American Psychiatric Association study are also interesting: The typical American child watches 28 hours of television a week, and by the age of 18 will have seen 16,000 simulated murders and 200,000 acts of violence.  There's no reason to think that the numbers in Canada are much different.

Except perhaps for parent-child co-sleeping, studies indicate that exposure to nudity has little effect on children.  On the other hand, studies on violence and bullying directed toward children show an increase in the rate of youth suicide.  Ottawa’s Jamie Hubley is a tragic example but there are many similar stories we hear about everyday.

Let’s take a look at the Capital Pride Parade.  The Ottawa and Toronto pride parades take place during the summer when school is out and children are under parental supervision.  The school board in Ottawa makes no effort to encourage children to attend but we do have a float in the parade, a school bus covered in welcoming messages and colourful balloons.  I have participated in the pride parade here in Ottawa and while I noticed some nudity toward the end of the parade, I did not see any violent images.

As a trustee who supports our school board’s participation in the parade, my rationale springs from a desire for our schools to be welcoming to all children, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation.   Our school board and many of our teachers individually support Gay-Straight Alliances to offer safe havens within our schools for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning students.  A recent study out of UBC indicates that GSAs reduce suicide risk for all students, gay and straight.

The persecution of gay people has been ongoing for centuries and the practice cannot be laid at the door of modern culture or pedagogy.  While many stereotypical slurs have decreased or fallen by the wayside, the phrase “that’s so gay” is still commonly used among young people as an expression of derision.  Bullying and the assault of gay youth are still common both in and out of school and the cultures of most high schools, Catholic and public, are not kind toward gay students.

With all this in mind, let’s discuss the effects of violence on young people and not become distracted by a red herring.  For children, bums are bums and water pistols are just water pistols even at a pride parade.  The effects of violence, on the other hand, can last a lifetime or even more tragically, can cut a lifetime far too short.  For the sake of our children, let’s start having an adult conversation about the very real effects of violence on youth.

The views expressed in this post are personal opinions only.

Tip on the tightrope

Dexter - the wonder dog

In my mind's eye, I see him bounding through the newly fallen snow.  Twirling and spinning in the air like Patrick Chan, but without years of practice and millions in support -- one graceful leap in a perfect arc after another.  My mother and I look on in awe.

He's Dexter, an australian sheperd and poodle mix. We adopted Dexter from another family when he was 18 months old and sometime later realized that he was likely the victim of unscrupulous breeders.  But at that special moment, all we could do was wonder at an animal in his heyday and marvel at his joy in being alive.

What is it to be alive?  There's a Blackfoot proverb that is very poetic, "It is the flash of a firefly in the night.  It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.  It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."  Life is walking the knife edge between the inertia of rock and the chaos of air.  In our minds, it can be a small happy place bounded by stultifying routine on one side and madness on the other.

Dexter on that winter day was at his prime, using his doggy skills to their maximum and enjoying every moment.  For humans, it's often the same.  We feel most alive when we push our boundaries, challenge ourselves, and gain new mental and physical skills. Citius, Altius, Fortius -- Faster, Higher, Stronger is the motto of the modern Olympic movement for a reason.

It's been exactly a year since I started writing this blog.  I have written close to 40 posts and have had over 15,000 page views.  I'm not a writer and am astounded that you continue to read.  Thank you.  This year, I participated in a beginner's triathlon and will soon begin a major academic challenge ... and I will be 60 years old in two months. Despite a health problem some years back, I feel much the way I did twenty years ago, mentally and physically.  In some ways, better!

All this to say that there is a trick to life.  New challenges keep body and mind young. Of course there will always be setbacks but try not to let them define you. Bounce back and embrace something new.  Live in the moment.

When I was 12, I tried to imagine myself in the year 2000.  I can still hear my child-self talking with a girlfriend and neither of us could envision living so long.  Now that I'm almost 60, I can't imagine not living.

Over the next 13 weeks, I will be studying under Marshall Ganz, the former organizer for the 2008 Presidential campaign of Barack Obama and the civil rights movement.  I applied to Professor Ganz's program in December and never dreamt I would be accepted. My studies will preoccupy me particularly since I haven't done much serious academic work in some time.  As generations of young men have said, I'll write.  Like them, I may not write often.

For those of you dreading that milestone birthday, let me assure you that sixty feels pretty good. You can re-invent yourself in life.  I'm comfortable in my skin, more at ease, smarter, in better shape, and happier than when I was forty.  Oh, and what I love most is the irreverence of my humour has become sharper.

Janelle Monáe in Tightrope

The ancient Greeks must have had the likes of Janelle Monáe in mind. Every goddess should be accompanied by such fine disciples. Listen to the lyrics of Tightrope. Sixty can be the new forty with conscious effort.  It's all about facing your fears and in Monáe's words, learning to "tip on the tightrope."

The views expressed in this post are personal opinions only.

Pete Seeger on hope

On the horizon, the hills above U.C. Berkeley were often brown for lack of rain.  Oakland, the city next door, was also brown but for lack of money.  It seemed that both the rain and money were reserved for the campus and its Californian students.  Unable to afford Berkeley's tuition fees, I took one course at a time.  My classmates seemed amazingly tolerant of my poverty and youth, I was the youngest in my class, but still I enjoyed the experience immensely.

Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie, 1975

This was Berkeley in the mid-70's and we took this tolerance for granted.  We were all equals here and we called our professors by their first names, a practice unheard of in previous generations.   We socialized with our teachers too and we challenged their ideas.  It was inclusive at the School of Public Health.

I loved the clash of ideas and it opened my eyes to the substantive, subversive notion that ideas, not people, are judged.  I loved listening to some of the great thinkers of that time, Ivan Illich and Eric Erikson, and loved that we could ask them questions.

On a beautiful spring day, almost everyday was beautiful in Berkeley, I didn't take my usual route to class along the lush footpaths lined with dark, dense growth and colourful bougainvillea.  Instead I went to Sproul Plaza, the main gate to the university.

Sproul Plaza was the hub of campus activity.  There was the lady dressed from head to toe in black, reciting poetry as she blew bubbles. There were the puppeteers with their large almost life-size political figures -- Reagan, Johnson, Kissinger -- there to deliver their message via street theatre.  There were the artists and pundits showing off their wares and abilities.  And there was a lone fundamentalist preacher delivering his sermon in front of the grand fountain that was the centre of the plaza.

Normally our preacher was without an audience but on that particular day, he had a large crowd before him and he was in fine form.  I stopped to listen too.  Behind our preacher, unbeknownst to our preacher,  stood a beautiful young woman on the edge of the fountain reflecting the gold of that day in her long blonde hair.

At about that time, Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie came to the Bay Area.  I hadn't heard much anti-war music and they were mostly unknown to me.  The music left a lasting impression and this was Pete Seeger's genius.  Like few before him, Seeger understood that lyrics can stay fresh in the mind long after mere words disappear.

In 1961, Seeger was convicted by The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) of 10 counts of contempt of Congress and yet a few short years later, he became one of America's best-known troubadours without having served a single day in jail.  Did Seeger know something the rest of us didn't when he arranged the old gospel song "We shall overcome" in 1940?

For Seeger, the banjo was his vehicle to call attention to the injustice of the Vietnam War and like Seeger, the struggle to end the war dominated our thoughts in Berkeley.  Almost every young person belonged to a political or civic organization.  We staged regular public meetings and protests against military recruitment on campus.  I became hooked on politics.

What might Pete Seeger tell us today about this time in his life?  Perhaps it was Seeger who was standing next to me at that fountain in Sproul Plaza on April 30, 1975.  I think he would have enjoyed the scene that followed as the blond removed her clothing while shouting, "The war is over.  The war is over!"  And perhaps it was then that he leaned over and whispered, "If you sing for children, you can't really say there's no hope."

The pictured album cover is how Pete and Arlo looked in 1975.  At the concert, they played a wonderful song of hope, Quite Early Morning.  This is a live recording.  Pete Seeger, you taught us well. History is about change and there is always hope.


The views expressed in this post are personal opinions only.

First Nations' teachings meet Einstein

Lately I find more First Nations people are willing to reach out to speak to me.  I recognize this takes time, energy and some degree of pain particularly for survivors of residential schools.  Thank you -- Meegwetch.  

Hopefully these posts show some appreciation but also they're an opportunity to bring you along for the journey.  I know I make mistakes as I attempt to convey ideas and beliefs I know little about but the disrespect of not responding in a conversation is an even greater wrong.  I  hope my First Nations friends will correct me.  I urge you to reach out too.

The Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health

Recently, I spent a wonderful Saturday afternoon with Chief Gilbert Whiteduck, Claudette Commanda, Grand Chief Alice Jerome, Regional Chief Ghislain Picard, and the amazing architect Dr. Douglas Cardinal.  Dr. Cardinal was the architect of the Museum of History (Civilization) and the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington.  

I have always been a great admirer of Cardinal's work.  My boys and I used to while away a cold winter's day in the bright, inviting Children's Museum within the Museum of Civilization. Douglas Cardinal's designs evoke nature -- undulating curves, uneven surfaces and textured sandstone.  If you ever have an opportunity to visit the beautiful Wabano Centre, do it!  If a building could spontaneously heal us, it's this one. And it's filled with inspiring First Nations, Inuit and Metis art from across the country. Dr. Cardinal will be turning eighty soon and a big party is being planned to help finance the construction of an indigenous centre, Circle of All Nations, at Asinabka (Victoria Island). Let's be there to support this great endeavour.

Chief Whiteduck spoke about our connection to the land and I hope this post winds up there too.   European and First Nations peoples have such different views of land, nature ... and self.  

Who am I?  It's a question teens often ask as they struggle for a place in the adult world but it's also a question we adults should ask more often.  As environmental and climate crises increasingly threaten our world, questions of identity and conviction become important.

Self in the European way of thinking is a distinct entity, apart from land and nature.  It is bounded, separate and seen as self-sufficient.  In the biblical sense, man has dominion over God's earthly creation and we are its master.  In the economic and political spheres, I is the basic unit of agency, the actor in these dramas.  For most Western people, this version of I appears to be self-evident and because of this, there isn't any other way of seeing self that isn't considered to be nonsense or wrong.

What if were to tell you that no less a figure than the great Albert Einstein saw self differently?

A human being is a part of a whole, called by us "Universe", a part limited in time and space.  He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.  This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.*

While post-modern philosophy challenges this egocentric notion of self, many people in Western countries still believe it.  But the Cartesian idea of separation of mind (self) and body will be generally understood to be erroneous someday in much the same way we no longer believe the earth to be the centre of the solar system. 

Perhaps what I don't need to tell you is that modern science is still trying to catch up with Einstein.  A short book that examines the biological paradox of physical boundaries and perhaps even self is My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor.  Dr. Taylor, a 37 year-old Harvard-trained neuroanatomist, suffered a massive stroke in 1996.  From the perspective of a scientist who specializes in the study of the brain, Dr. Taylor came back from the stroke to tell us what she observed during her recovery.

One of Dr. Taylor's more profound observations is that when the posterior parietal gyrus was shut down in the left hemisphere of her brain due to the stroke, her sense of physical boundaries was turned off.  Essentially without a sense of boundary between skin and air, Dr. Taylor experienced a oneness with nature that she describes as very pleasurable.  The question is did this shutdown of the posterior parietal gyrus also cause Dr. Taylor to lose her sense of self.  Taylor does say that in the course of her recovery, the pleasure of this state was so intense that it took some effort to bring herself back.

Sometimes I try to imagine what Dr. Taylor might have felt as I float in my quiet lake at sunset.  As the chatter of my mind temporarily ceases, I experience a deep appreciation for my surroundings and a sense of tranquility. 

I assume Dr. Taylor is accurately describing the situation -- a distinct area within the brain that defines boundaries and perhaps self.  But I also recognize that I am likely simplifying a complex phenomenon. Still there must have been an evolutionary advantage to awareness of self-boundaries and on the surface of it, it appears to be obvious.  An organism needs a way to protect its integrity from injury and attack. Without this sense of boundary, we may see ourselves as one with the lion that is about to attack, which is not exactly a state of mind conducive to survival.  

I suppose a similar question could be asked of the lion; does it simply have a sense of boundary or is it something more?  I would guess that with similarities in brain structure, it probably does although it's likely fairly different from ours. Still from the perspective of a cat lover and former cat owner, there is no mistaking that cats have an overblown sense of self but dogs, on the other hand ... .

First Nations people have a sense of self that is moderated by philosophies, cultures and religious beliefs different from Western thinking.  First Nations people talk not just about their connections to children, parents and perhaps grandparents but to seven generations.  They also speak about connections to the land and nature in a similar way and about how all of creation is inter-connected.

Last Saturday, Grand-Chief Alice Jerome spoke about her struggle to keep her language while in a residential school.  She explained that her Algonquin language is important as it gives her an ability to freely express concepts not readily available in other languages. For example, the words "open" and "life" are similar in Algonquin and they convey the idea that life is a state of openness to one's surroundings or openness toward the world.

I have come to believe that First Nations people have much to teach us ... and frankly if we are to survive, these are lessons we will have to learn.  Humanity is coming to a crossroads -- either we come together to live in harmony with each other, the land and nature or we will all perish.  And living in harmony means understanding that we are an intrinsic part of nature.

In this journey, I have been amazed by the time and patience Aboriginal people have given me and those around me.  Still the ultimate question for us as Westerners remains do we have the humility and selflessness to truly listen, learn and change our practices.  Do we have the desire to also help build bridges of understanding?  For as Douglas Cardinal says, "We have the power to destroy this whole planet.  We have to learn to be responsible for our acts."


The views expressed in this post are personal opinions only.